Perceptions of Information Literacy: Presentation Notes

WILU Presentation
May 2007 – York University
M.J. D’Elia
GENESIS (Robin: 2.5 minutes)

• Robin’s IL journey and interest in this study

GENESIS (MJ: 2.5 minutes)

• Conversations on Information Literacy
o Analyze the effectiveness of IL instruction
o Strategize about how to make it better
o Co-taught sessions
o Designed interactive activities
o Never entirely satisfied with our results

• MCS 2020 Proposal
o Approached to teach an entire course called Information Management
o Second year course, required for BCom
o Not a course about research, but it was information-related
o Course was very much about computer technology and common business
applications (e.g. Microsoft Excel)
o Not surprisingly it was one of the courses that students hated most
o The curriculum committee was hoping to update it, but no one was
interested in taking it on
o This was the opportunity to really think about information literacy and
instruction - I had to accept.

• Immersion in Boston (August 2006)
o My experience was different than Robin
o I didn’t come away singing the praises of IL
o I did come away with a better idea of who I was as a teacher and what
unique value I brought to the learning experience as a librarian (more on
that later)

• Feedback forms (December 2006)
o Let Robin read some of the feedback forms from my students
o The comments made us question our approach to IL even further
o In the Winter semester – Robin and I hatched a plan to investigate further

• The Research Project
o We drafted a proposal for the Research Ethics board to study the students.
o Robin came to many of the classes to observe the teaching and learning
o She conducted focus groups at the end of the semester (In fact, a lot of the
quotes you’ll see come directly from those sessions)
o We did a mid-year and year-end survey with open-ended questions.
o We’re going to talk about those results, but first I’ll let Robin set the tone
for our session today.

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
EXODUS: Introduction to Session (Robin: 2 minutes)

• Remarks and expectations about today’s session
• Multiple roles/angles/perspectives (ourselves and the audience)
• Intention to be co-investigators (organic, open-ended, self-discovery)

EXODUS: Relevance Activity (MJ: 8 minutes)

• Hand out a large-format sticky note to each member of the audience

• Have the audience try to define “Relevant”
o What does it take for something to be “relevant”?
o What are the characteristics of “relevance”?
o Think of this in an academic context or in your personal life

• Questions?

• Take 2 minutes to write down as many definitions as possible
o The goal is quantity
o This is more challenging than it looks
o Feel free to think creatively (no censoring your thoughts)

• Slide the notes one person to the left
o Take one minute to read their list
o If something generates a new idea scribble it down on the note

• Slide the notes one person to the left again
o This time, review the list of ideas in front of you (which has now been
compiled by two different people).
o If you think there is an interesting idea on your Post-it note that helps you
understand the idea then come up and write it on the chalkboard.

• Take a minute to go over the ideas as they’re going up on the board

• What’s the point of this exercise?

o When Robin and I started we wondered what the connection was between
relevance (or students’ perception of relevance) and learning (or the
motivation to learn).

o What we quickly determined was that defining relevance is a very difficult
task – it means different things to different people in different scenarios

o It’s clear from the responses in this session that the term has depth, variety
and different angles of approach.

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia

o I had you switch the Post-it Notes three times so that you ended up
evaluating someone else’s ideas – some people have a tendency to
discredit their own ideas BUT in fact they’re quite good (it puts someone
else in the position of evaluator)

• Hand in their Post-It notes
o Slide them to the end of the row and then to the front (give to Robin)

• Class relevance
o I do this exercise in my class (only I ask them to define and describe
information)
o Set the tone for the type of activities I will do throughout the course
o Encourage them to contribute
o Acknowledge the fact that there are multiple perspectives.

EXODUS: Course Format (MJ: 10 minutes)

• Context and Course Format
o Easier to understand our observations (and the students’ responses to the
course) if you understand what the course looked like

• Role-Playing
o I tell them to act like employees of a business, but not just any business.
o I created a fictional company in the high-tech industry that makes smart
phones and personal digital assistants. (Since we’re in Guelph we’re
loosely modelled on Research in Motion, but in their early stages – not the
billion dollar company they are now).
o WebCT is our corporate intranet for communication and company
documents (product profiles, company financials, corporate code of ethics)
o Choose a name for their corporation (e.g. Uber Tech). Now, the class has
some ownership over what happens.
o This is role-playing on a large scale – on the one hand we’re a typical
undergraduate university class, but on the other we’re something else too

• Assignments
o Mock corporation allows for more flexibility in terms of the assignments

• Debate assignment
o I create a fictional scenario that is facing our company (Uber Tech) and
then two task groups are formed to present different options.
o We might tackle ethical issues like corporate espionage (should we buy
information from a competitor’s employee?), we might tackle legal issues
like patent infringement or we might tackle long-term strategy issues
(choosing a city for a new manufacturing plant).

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
o Two task groups we struck to research the scenario, present their
viewpoint and present their case to the class.
o During the business meeting they will also have the opportunity to rebut
the case from their opponents and then field questions from the audience
o This was more dynamic than typical student presentations.
o After the debate the rest of the class voted by secret ballot (but they had to
put down a reason for why they voted).
o I was getting complaints because the ballots were too small and they had
much more to say about the issues.

• Comparison Paper
o They had to examine a business technology issue
Using biometric identification to secure access to sensitive
information
Implementing RFID technology to track goods and learn about
consumer behaviour
Outsourcing technology jobs to developing nations like India
Investing heavily in Information Technology to gain a competitive
advantage.
o Their task was to examine the issue and then make a recommendation to
the CEO (me) for our company.
o Students quickly learned that they needed to examine the issue from
multiple perspectives.
o It wasn’t enough to provide a summary of major points of view, they had
to make a decision based on the information they found – and defend it.

• Different Perspectives
o I designed their activities so that they had to look at the issues from
different angles
o Example: Implementing wireless technology in a Fortune 500 company
and at your locally-owned coffee shop are two completely different
scenarios – with a completely different set of variables.
o I tried my best not to enforce my perspective on an issue, but to let them
practice drawing their own conclusions – and practice defending them.

• Librarian’s Bias/Angle/Perspective
o I was initially asked to teach the course because of my perceived
connection to the content (i.e. information management) – that sounds like
a librarian doesn’t it?
o However, I think I was successful teaching the course because of my
perspective as a librarian (ACRL’s standards anyone?)
Identifying the major arguments
Prioritizing information needs
Searching out the best quality information
Using the information accordingly

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
o I wanted them to learn the content, but I wasn’t interested in teaching
textbook answers – after all, research (and life in general) is a little more
messy than that

• Teaching Stance
o The content of the course became the channel for communicating good
information seeking habits.
o In the fall I can change the scenarios, I can change the company, I can
change the curriculum, I could even change the discipline and yet still
achieve the learning objectives.
o My teaching stance is what stayed consistent throughout the course. In this
instance being a librarian served me quite well.
o At no point did I use the term Information Literacy when talking about the
course, but it’s hard to deny that it was embedded in the curriculum.

• Pause for Questions

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Explanation of handout (MJ: 2 minutes)

• Handout
o Now that we’ve set the stage, we’d like to share some of our observations
with you.
o We’ve grouped our thoughts into 6 major observations
o You’ll see on your handout that these observations are on both sides of the
paper (the only difference is the layout).

• Side 1 (Traditional Side)
o This is the order that we’re going to present our observations
o We’ve left some space under each heading for you to make your notes
o Of course, this layout suggests that the concepts are linear – when in
reality they’re not
o They’re not hierarchical, or iterative either – they’re just a mess of
connected concepts.

• Side 2 (Fun Side)
o This side is a more visual way of taking notes – we’ve given you the
ability to make a concept map
o It’s a little more challenging to take notes this way, but it allows you to
make your own connections about what we have to say.
o Basically, as we talk about each observations you want to capture major
ideas and group them around the concepts in an organic brainstorm
o The challenge for you is to think about how these terms connect and
writing the words on your connecting lines
o Give it a shot – it’s Friday afternoon – what have you got to lose?

• Pause for questions

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Observation #1: Modelling (Robin: 5 minutes)

• How the library concept of information literacy was modelled in the course

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Observation #2: Time (MJ: 5 minutes)

• Connection to Modelling
o It’s easy to model good information habits when you have the luxury of
time (not just longer sessions, but regular weekly classes)

• Rhythm – Feeling each other out Phase
o 4-5 weeks to establish a rapport with the students
o Students are trying to figure out whether this is really the course they want
to take (or if it is going to be too much work)
o I’m trying to figure out whether this class will be interactive or whether
they’ll be distracted and bored.
o Students need to be reasonably sure about what to expect before they fully
engage in the learning project – it’s unspoken but we negotiate the
classroom protocol and develop our shared experience for the course.

• Active Learning
o Time allows you to set the tone for the course.
o I prefer to do a lot of in-class activities – using class time for more than
just lectures

• Time for mistakes
o Chance to revisit content or clarify issues
o Referencing example
Students are told to reference so that you don’t get into trouble
I didn’t use a textbook, so I forced students to look up articles.
One of my citations was incorrect and the students couldn’t find
the required reading
They quickly learned another reason why referencing properly is
important.

• READING FROM THE CLASS
o “One day when MJ sourced something incorrectly and I went to look for
the article I was like I can’t find the article, what’s going on? I was so
frustrated and then he was like, yeah, my mistake and I was like that’s
why it’s so important to reference because when someone wants to find
your article and they can’t find it, you go crazy. It’s like where is it? It’s
supposed to be here. Am I crazy? What’s going on here? And if you can’t
find the article, well then how legitimate is this?”

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia

• Teachable moments
o Allow you to deviate from your usual script when a good learning
opportunity presents itself (increased spontaneity)
o Power Point example
In-class activity was to design a couple of PowerPoint slides
I had been appalled at some of the PowerPoint skills from the
previous semester, so I thought I would provide a little more
direction.
The students didn’t like the assignment calling it trivial and not
important to their studies (I even had one group hand in their
worksheet with random stick figures).
I was frustrated with the output – I wanted to show them how
important it was to communicate with visual tools
Around the same time, we were hiring for a senior position at
Guelph and I was on the hiring committee.
One of our candidates was fairly strong, but nearly every
committee member pointed out that her PowerPoint slides were
really weak (and unfortunately that was our first impression of
her).
I was able to use this little lesson to show how important it is to
organize your thoughts and learn to communicate them.
It was an opportunity to recalibrate and emphasize why I thought it
was important to know this stuff

• Time for student feedback
o After each debate I would summarize my thoughts
o But I would also include comments from the class into the next lecture
o I would provide feedback for the debates based on what the students had
said on their ballots.
o Plagiarism example
One of my comparison paper topics was Biometrics
Between the semesters I had made minor changes to the
assignment
The Winter class was required to find additional resources (the Fall
semester just had to read from my list)
When I was marking the papers from the Winter class I noticed
that the reference lists on a handful of papers were nearly identical
to last semester
To me something wasn’t right. I thought about the best way to
handle it – basically keeping it quiet or opening it up
I presented the evidence to the class at the end of one of my classes
and asked them what conclusions they would draw from this
matter
The first response was plagiarism – others suggested coincidence,
laziness, inability to research.

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
I asked them what should be done about the matter and they
suggested giving students a week to come forward and explain
themselves to me in person.
I had 5 or 6 students come forward noting that they may have done
something that was in the grey area of research ethics
I would not have had this opportunity had it not been for the
amount of consistent time that I spent with these students

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Observation #3: Expertise (MJ: 5 minutes)

• Inferiority complex
o In universities librarians are often considered second-class faculty (and in
many ways we consider ourselves second-class faculty)
o You can see this attitude all over the literature and hear people complain
that faculty members “don’t know what we do”
o Within this classroom I was immediately accepted as a legitimate
professor – to students it didn’t seem to matter
o Being the person responsible for their grades has an inherent form of
authority; however, students can still choose whether or not to accept that
authority.

• Role of the Expert
o I don’t have formal business training
o I’m without a PhD and I haven’t published in a peer-reviewed journal
o I do have personal expertise and experience in information management. I
let the students share in my experiences (as a sales rep for Pepsi or as
former owner of a small ecommerce website).
o These experiences seemed to give me some legitimacy - they were able to
identify with me.
o I told them that I was a librarian and gave them a brief rationale for why I
was the professor, but students didn’t seem to think that having a PhD was
necessary for being a good teacher.
o Sometimes we think that we need to know absolutely everything about
something before we can teach it and I would say that just feeds our
insecurities.

• READING FROM THE CLASS
o “They have to show passion and trust and enthusiasm in what they’re
talking about. Because a professor gets up there and they’re talking
monotone about something that they went to school for 8 years for, I’m
not going to believe you.”

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia

• Student-Teacher Relationships matters
o Students appreciated the relationship dynamic
o “What do we call you?” I told them that they could call me “MJ” – but
most still stuck to Professor.
o They knew I wanted them to learn the stuff and that mattered more to me
than being the all-knowing expert.
o Copyright question
• One student asked me a question about copyright legislation in
China and I didn’t have a satisfying answer (for me or for him).
• The following class I had an article from a recent newspaper that
provided a more satisfactory response
• Simply admitting that I didn’t know something, made it okay for
students to do the same thing
• The question wasn’t essential to the course, but it mattered that I
cared to find it
o This sort of posture isn’t foreign to librarians – after all, we have a habit of
using other sources to help students find information
o The students responded to an attitude of transparency (not professional
distance)
o When we relinquish control or the need to be an all-knowing expert we’re
able to adapt a posture of co-investigation (we’re all in this together, we’re
all trying to make sense of the information world together).

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Observation #4: Research Skills (Robin: 5 minutes)

• Students understand writing and speaking skills as important but haven’t seemed
to recognize the importance of research skills.

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Observation #5: Self-Discovery (Robin: 5 minutes)

• Students responded well to discovering meaning for themselves – constructivist
approach.

LEVITICUS/NUMBERS: Observation #6: Information Ecology (MJ: 5 minutes)

• Ecology
o In biology, describes the relations and interactions between organisms and
their environment (and between other organisms)
o Consider then the relationships among people and their information needs.
o There are complex levels to the information environment we live in
The Internet is definitely the best tool for some needs
Academic literature better for others

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
Sometimes it’s a matter of knowing who to call (person-to-person
contact)

• Weekly readings
o No textbook doesn’t mean no reading
o Each week I would give them articles to read
o Often these articles were on the same topic but from different perspectives
o These articles also came from a range of readings – some from the
internet, some from industry sources, some from academic journals, some
from YouTube, etc.
o I believe that this approach is consistent with the ideals of Information
Literacy

• Controlled environments = bad for learning
o Our goal in a typical IL session is to help the students research
o We provide assistance by showing them how and where to search.
o Sometimes we even teach only to a specific assignment (that’s the only
way they’ll listen to us, we say)
o BUT we eliminate that important first step when researchers determine
where they need to start looking for information and what exactly they
need to find.

o INSTEAD we should help them to frame their information needs as
problems to be solved.
o Then help them determine the best tools to solve their problems
o The route to solving that problem will (and probably should) differ from
student-to-student.
o Comparison paper example
The outcome isn’t to write a paper and get a good grade.
The outcome is to research biometric technology
Choose a solution based on what you know about our company
and on the information you find.
You’re still writing a report to effectively communicate what
you’ve found, but the end goal is about a decision.

• Black and White Answers = simplistic learning
o We operate under the assumption that students (particularly business
students) want black and white answers to everything.
o BUT they engaged more when there was more ambiguity.
o Debate example:
Our debate sessions would raise questions that were not in the
initial scenario (and could not easily be answered by the task
forces)
Instead of exposing the holes in the scenario the class questions
highlighted other areas where we needed more information.

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
They quickly learned how complex decision-making could be in
organizations.

• READING FROM CLASS
o “It kind of gave you sense of what businesses do and what problems they
encounter and how hard the decisions are. It’s not as easy as it might
seem. You might think it seems easy but once you see it from the business
perspective it seems a lot more complicated.”

• Where do we go from here?
o We fail when we try teach in such a way that eliminates questions or
imposes structured answers
o We need to find a way to encourage questions – to let them see how messy
the research process is.
o What happens when these students graduate and no longer have access to
thousands of dollars worth of information in business databases?
o Wouldn’t we be better served to help them familiarize themselves with the
broader information ecology
o Would we be better off (at least in business) to show people how to get the
most out of the internet and other free resources?

DEUTERONOMY: Where do we go from here? (Robin: 2.5 minutes)

• Why this exercise was relevant to Robin and how it affected her outlook on
Information Literacy

DEUTERONOMY: Where do we go from here? MJ: 2.5 minutes)

• Practical applications
o This study opened up a conversation with students
o Their thoughts will go toward helping me shape this course for the Fall
semester (both the assignments and the lectures)
o Students liked the amount of choice that I offered
o It allowed them to shape their own learning experience
o And motivated them to learn as well
o Having Robin in the class and debriefing with her throughout the semester
was incredibly beneficial to my teaching

• Relevance is a slippery
o In some ways our observations simply leave us with more questions
o Some things that work in one semester are not guaranteed to work in the
next
o I’ve taught 3 sections of this course and each one has had a distinct
personality

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
My lecture on the Internet was the least favourite class in the first
semester, BUT in the second many highlighted it as the lecture that
helped them better understand the information society
o Students have different levels of motivation and commitment to learning

• The reward of relevance
o Of course, the challenge to make things relevant to the students means
more work, but (as with most things in life) more work means more
reward.
o If use the same examples repeatedly, or never deviate from my script –
then I’m not much different than a textbook
o The content quickly becomes stale, I lose interest in teaching it and the
students can sense it
o BUT if I find current examples and new discussion topics, then I enjoy it
more and that enthusiasm comes out.

• Stance
o For me this experience helped me reflect on my own stance or teaching
philosophy
o I realized that for me to be a good teacher I need to enjoy my subject, but I
also need to help them see the transferable nature of what they’re learning
o For me the challenge was to communicate the values of information
literacy within the course content – not as some separate exercise that we
practice once in the semester.

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WILU Presentation
M.J. D’Elia
DEUTERONOMY: Discussion (MJ & Robin: Remaining time)

• What will you do differently in the 50 minute session and your role as guest
speaker in the future?

• If you change your philosophy of teaching towards co-investigation and self-
discovery-focused teaching, how does it change how you teach? What are the
risks and benefits? How do you teach to your strengths while acknowledging your
weaknesses?

• How does this challenge or support our identity as experts? Is the role of expert
guest speaker the best approach? If we abandon it, what do we assume as an
alternative?

• Do we need to start to view IL more holistically with thinking, writing, arguing,
presenting skills? (Just as our students do!)

• How do we look at ‘failure’ in teaching and perhaps redefine it?

• What has been different in this experience of IL for you, as an instructor, not a
librarian? What did you have to unlearn?

EXTRAS

• The future
o I do my best to find new examples each semester
o Reusing examples tends to make the class seem too formulaic (even if it is
only to me)
o I try to pull examples from the past week’s newspaper to show how
widespread information issues are in our society
o I think I may change the industry our mock corporation works in (maybe
we’ll make chocolate bars this semester) – that change in variable will
naturally change the debates and papers
o I’ve started a job for information management issues that will open the
course content up to students outside the classroom.

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Perceptions of Information Literacy: Presentation Notes

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